If and when it becomes an ingrained part of one’s daily habits, a full and fulfilling yama/niyama practice can exist with some ease, but it will never be easy.
Since yoga is, first and foremost, a practice, it is worth taking a look at two words from the yoga lexicon which are regularly translated as “practice”: abhyasa and sadhana.
Anodea is the celebrated author of “Eastern Body, Western Mind”.
These basic ideas I call myth, not using the word ‘myth’ to mean simply something untrue, but to use the word ‘myth’ in a more powerful sense. A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.
Gabriel is an Iyengar Yoga Teacher based in Chicago.
It may be an unpopular opinion in some yoga circles, but even in reading ancient texts – perhaps especially in reading ancient texts – I come to the conclusion that change is the only truth that we can rely on.
If we fix our minds on one object, we will prevent the nine obstacles from arising, eliminate the four associated symptoms, and cultivate the habit of an even, calm steady state of mind.
In the metaphors of other cultures, light is at war with darkness, life with death, good with evil, and the positive with the negative, and thus an idealism to cultivate the former and be rid of the latter flourishes throughout much of the world.